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excellent cabinet making business. Their handiwork was 

 made to last, not merely to sell, for I have sundry specimens 

 of it in my possession at the present time, as good as when put 

 together, more than sixty years ago. The shopkeepers in those 

 days must have made money, for in after years I recognised 

 several of them comfortably located in suburban villas. The 

 principal inn was the King's Arms, then kept by Mr Fraser, 

 who was afterwards Provost of the burgh. 



The chief medical men at this date were Doctors Maxwell, 

 Melville, and Symons, and Mr Blacklock, a former navy surgeon. 

 Dr Maxwell I have heard spoken of as " Dagger Maxwell," from 

 some popular notion that he was favourable to the French 

 Revolution. Those who remember Dr Melville will doubtless 

 recollect a peculiar habit he had of hitching up his " pants " 

 when he stopped to speak to any one in the street. They were 

 all able men in their vocation, but differed somewhat in their 

 mode of practice, a licence which is generally accorded to doctors, 

 as well as to poets, without implying any disparagement to either. 



The clergy of the Established Church at this period were Dr 

 Scott of St. Michael's, a portly looking gentleman, who in hot 

 weather walked the street carrying his hat in his hand. Dr 

 Duncan was the minister of the New Kirk, and the Rev. Charles 

 Babington, an M.A. of Oxford, was the incumbent of the 

 Episcopal Chapel. The Nonconformist body was represented by 

 the Rev. Walter Dunlop, who was somewhat of a "character," 

 and was gifted with a large amount of ready humour. I have a 

 lively reuiembrance of his personal appearance — a tall stout man, 

 with a large genial countenance, wearing a broad brimmed hat 

 and a wide skirted coat ; walking with a swinging step, and 

 carrying a dark coloured " gamp " umbrella tucked under his 

 arm, with the horn handle projecting from beneath his shoulder. 

 Numerous jokes and witticisms have been laid to his charge, and 

 some of them have appeared in print. The following anecdote 

 concerning him was related to me by the person who was an 

 actor in the scene, and has not, I think, been made public. Tlie 

 Rev. Walter, as not unfrequently happened, going one afternoon 

 to take tea with a member of his congregation, who lived in the 

 country, accidentally met a son of the rev. doctor of the New Kirk 

 and invited him to accompany him. On arriving at the farm 

 house, he proposed to the inmates to give them "a prayer" before 

 tea, as, I believe, was his custom. The gude wife excused herself 



